ETI in Australia’s Smith Journal

Caring for the planet needn’t come at the expense of enjoying its fruits. Or animals, for that matter. Eat the Invaders is a collection of recipes encouraging culinary conservationism by cooking with pests. We asked creator Joe Roman about helping the environment “one bite at a time”.

Are you a conservationist who happens to like food, or a foodie with an environmental conscience? A conservation biologist who loves food. I’ll go miles out of my way to find a good meal, but in the case of invaders you don’t have to: they bring the tastes of Italy, France and Asia right to our back door.

What’s the worst invasive species, conservation-wise?Felis catus, the domestic cat, which kills millions of native birds and mammals each year. (And, no, I do not suggest eating them, but trapping and neutering is a good start.) In Australia there’s the Opuntia cactus, which is your pest pear. The list goes on and on, sadly.

What’s your favourite recipe? I love soft-shelled crabs. The European green crab, which has invaded North America, Australia, South america, Africa, and Asia, makes a fantastic meal.

What’s the secret to cooking bullfrog? Grill them. I suggest marinating them first, with olive oil, lemons, parsley, and garlic.

What two invaders go well together? Gather some non-native weeds in the spring and make a salad. Possible ingredients include dandelions, lamb’s quarters, and purslane. This goes well with dandelion wine.

If Eat the Invaders ever successfully eradicated a species – green crabs in Maine, say – would you miss them? I’d welcome the native crabs to the intertidal, and start eating one of the later invaders, the Asian shore crab.

Are your recipes traditional, or your own invention? Both. When we come across a traditional recipe we’ll try it, but I also call up celebrity chefs and foragers to get modern takes on invasives. We also encourage readers, our citizen ‘invasivores,’ to post recipes.

Land

Wild Pig

Did the domestic ancestors of today’s feral pigs streak off De Soto’s ship into the Florida scrub of their own accord in 1539? Or did they have to be urged to go find something to eat? All you need to…

Sow Thistle

Lamb’s Quarters

Lamb’s quarters was a popular spring tonic in the South—an early season edible green—but its leaves are good throughout the summer. Chenopodium album Native range: Described by Linnaeus in 1753, this European native has been transferred throughout much of the world. Because its spread was rarely recorded, C. album‘s native and invasive [...]

Green Crab

Since the green crab was first recorded off southern Massachusetts in 1817, it has been hard to ignore. A few minutes of rock-flipping in Maine can turn up dozens of them, brandishing their claws as they retreat…

Fresh

Armored Catfish

The armored catfish is abundant and destructive in Florida, Texas, and Mexico. Cast your nets for these flavorful natives of the Amazon. Scientific name: Two types have become established in North America: armadillo del rio, Hypostomus plecostomus, and sailfin catfishes in genus Pterygoplichthys Native range: Amazon River Basin Invasive range: Texas, Florida, and Hawaii; also [...]

Common Carp

For a bottom-feeder, what is the good life? The common carp isn’t very demanding: any body of water that’s sluggish and murky will do. If the water is clean, and you’ve got corn for bait, try one of these recipes.

Crayfish

There are numerous invasive crayfish. We include details for the red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) and the rusty crayfish (Orenectes rusticus). The same recipes can be used for both species–and many other invasive crayfish. Red Swamp Crayfish Native range: Known as Louisiana crayfish, crawdad, and mudbug, Procambarus clarkii is native to the south central [...]

Field Notes

If You Can’t Beat Them, Eat Them

Can appealing to our stomachs–and our sense of fun–help preserve an ecosystem? Off the Florida coast, the lionfish, an aquarium pet gone destructive, is promoted as food and in spearfishing contests. Check out the story in The Christian Science Monitor here.

Invasive Species Turned Into Sustainable Delicacies

“It is certainly a great idea to cook with invasive species, but a challenging one,” Andrew Esterson, a restoration ecologist, explains. “Education would go a long way. Perhaps if there was a demand for nutria it would start showing up at farmers markets or on the shelves at grocery stores.” Esterson’s first time cooking with [...]

The Alien Aesthetic

Patterson Clark turns invasive plants into art. As a volunteer for the National Park Service, he got an idea: “One day, when I was pulling a plant, I thought, how can I change my relationship with this plant so that it’s not just eradication, taking something’s life? Since then, I’ve been harvesting invasive plants, rather [...]

The Lionfish Market

In a sign that the eat-the-invaders movement continues to gain steam, the University of West Florida’s College of Business is offering a course on marketing the highly invasive lionfish to consumers. Read more about it here.

Mark Dion, artist, New York Times, April 1, 2012

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